Do you think they could literally smell the flak?

[SpecialCake]

On one of my particular early flight lessons, while doing touch and go's, I noticed that during one particular portion of the pattern, I noticed the distinct smell of a backyard barbeque. At first I thought I must be mistaken, but after several touch and go's, it was definitely there. The fourth time, after actively searching (and admittedly flying lower out of curiousity), there was indeed smoke rising above that particular spot in a residential area, with what certainly could have been a BBQ get-together (it is still hard to tell particulars even at a couple hundred feet.)

I asked my flight instructor about this and he agreed that this was indeed the case of simple physics - the smoke was rising and the smell along with it. He told me about a similiar instance when flying on the 4th of July.

So my question would be, do you think when flying among clouds of flak, that it has a distinct smell? I'm sure it makes a (usually faint) popping sound of some sort, but I would think that perhaps to the radio operator or navigator who isn't looking outside the entire time, the occurence of flak might initially make itself known by it's smell.


What do you think?